Discovering the truth
by Mesalline
Summary: Whilst the team are on the hunt for Bernie Harris, Owen finds a device similar to that Gwen had found. But this one is different. Jack finally discovers the truth about that night on the Game Station...allong with the rest of the team.
1. New Discoveries

_A/N: Sorry about the Uber-short chapter. Next one will be allot longer. I think this story will only have two chapters in it. Please read and review. Thank you. _

"Wait!" Owen yelled.

"Guy's I think I've found something here!" Owen hunkered down to ground level, hitching his jeans up as he did so.

Owen rolled up his sleeves and shifted some of the debris and ground dirt out of the way. Something had caught his eye when the sun had hit it. It looked vaguely familiar…

"Owen!" Jacks voice came from behind him.

"Are you gunna continue to waste our time? 'Cause we really need to catch up with dear old Bernie Harris."

Owen looked round at Jack. "I think I've found something," he repeated. Jack looked mildly interested. "Oh aye?"

"Wait…that looks like…" Toshiko had joined them. Her voice trailed off when she recognised the object Owen had uncovered.

"That looks like the device I found in Bernie's coat pocket," finished Gwen.

"But it's…Different, some how," said Toshiko, confusion and uncertainty clear in her voice.

"I don't like this," she said. "I don't like it at all."

Jack glanced at her. "Me neither," he said, and picked the silver object up.

"_Jack_!"


	2. An Army of Daleks

**A/N: If anything this storys just pure Jack whump. But we all love a bit of angst. Go on, admit it. **

**This storys gonna be longer than i anticipated. The plot bunny just kept on growin' **

**Thanks to my wonderful reviewers! I hope you like this chapter ) Kinda lengthy, so i hope it makes up for the absymal first chapter. I should be ashamed of that chapter. I am. Anyways, On with teh fic :D **

**Just a note: "Past Jack" means the Jack in "Parting of the ways" Y'know the one dressed in leather? Looks a bit of a twat? That one. **

_Previously:_

_"I don't like this," she said. "I don't like it at all."_

_Jack glanced at her. "Me neither," he said, and picked the silver object up._

_"Jack!"_

_0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o_

Jack felt the panic rising up in his chest. His heart was beating faster than usual. He tried to calm himself down—he'd have another panic attack if he wasn't careful. But he couldn't, he was filled with fear.

"Jack?"

He turned round slowly to face the rest of his team. They all looked as scared as he felt.

"You shouldn't have to see this," he whispered. He could barely get the words out.

The all too familiar sirens were wailing—those sirens that wailed in his dreams, and were constantly at the back of his mind. This was the day that everything changed. He was back at the Game Station.

_Knee deep in Dalek dust-_

"Jack? Where are we…?" Gwen's frightened voice trailed of as the sounds of footsteps were fast approaching them from behind.

The huge metal grated doors burst open behind them. Past Jack pelted through, heavy metal soled boots clanking loudly on the metal floor. He felt the rest of the team starring at him in fright and confusion.

_They shouldn't have to see this…this isn't right, hell; I don't want them to see this-_

A man and a woman followed Jack, both carrying heavy guns. Past Jack turned to face them.

"Right! You two guard the entrance what ever happens we can't let them break through. We've got to protect them…Do what ever you can, got it?" The two dead people nodded in agreement at his past self.

_Dead,_ he thought, _they're dead it's just a memory being replayed-_

"I'll be back in five minutes! Good luck!" Past Jack ran back the way he'd come, with Gwen, Owen, Ianto and Toshiko starring after him in complete confusion.

"Jack, What the hell-?"

Jack tried desperately to keep the tears at bay. He was starting to feel dizzy.

"I never did make it back in five minutes," he chocked out.

Gwen laid a reassuring hand on his arm, but he flinched and pulled away.

"This is the day I died," he told them quietly.

"Jack…" Toshiko tried to interrupt, but he wouldn't let her. He only had the strength to tell them this once.

"We're on the Game Station. In the year 2010, back when I was human-"

He stopped talking abruptly and swung around, his heart caught in his chest as he recognized the blonde woman racing past them down the corridor.

"Rose…"

Rose turned back; frowning, and starred straight at him, as though she'd heard him. But he'd been working at Torchwood long enough to know that she hadn't.

"Who's Rose?" Gwen asked quietly as the woman turned and ran out of sight.

"I…I travelled with her." Gwen's eyebrows disappeared into her fringe.

"She wasn't my girl friend!" Jack snapped. "I travelled with her and the Doctor. We travelled through space and time…This is why we're in the year 2010. It may seem unbelievable to you lot…but for us, this was a normal day." Jack laughed harshly.

"I'm going to find out what happened to me," he said suddenly.

"Maybe if I find out what happens…I can work out a way to reverse it…and, and then…" he was stuttering now.

"And then what Jack?" said Owen. "This isn't real- it's just memories."

Jack's shoulders sagged and he bowed his head.

"You shouldn't see this…"

Gwen took hold of his hand and placed it in hers.

"EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!"

They all swivelled round to come face to face with an army of Daleks, ready for battle. Jack tried to back off in fear, but crashed into Ianto. All of Jacks instinct told him to run- run and don't look back. But Ianto placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Stay," he said softly. "It's okay."

He hadn't realized he was shaking.

"Jack, what are they?" asked Owen in a hushed voice, starring at the Daleks in distaste.

"Daleks," he chocked. "Hundred's of them."

"C'mon," Jack whispered, and led down a long corridor. Their feet echoed loudly around the narrow walls.

He had to see this—he had to know what happened. Maybe then he could find peace. They came to a door-way that led out into a large room, filled with rows and rows of computers and hi-tech equipment. A huge screen was built into the wall at one end…and the TARDIS stood at the other.

"Wow," said Toshiko in a hushed voice, gaping at the computers.

"The Game Station was just that- a Game station. A real life game in which people could put themselves in, watched by millions of below on earth below-"

"Below!?" Said Gwen in shocked tone.

Jack nodded. "The name kinda gives it away."

When they continued to stare at him blankly, he expanded- "Satellite Five."

Gwen blanched.

"We can watch everything from here," he said quietly, signalling for them to crouch down next to him.

The team watched on. They watched as the three companions parted—they watched as Jack yelled "See you in hell!" to his friends, running through all five of them, all guns blazing. They watched as the Doctor told Rose to get something from the TARDIS, and they watched the TARDIS leave without him. They watched as the doctor starred blankly at the empty space that his loyal time machine once filled. They watched on in horror as the Doctor prepared to blow up the Game Station—but only to be surrounded by an army of Daleks. Jack let out a strangled sob. Ianto put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"He finished it," he sobbed. "We sacrificed ourselves and he finished it! He could have ended it…"

Ianto held Jack as he sobbed into his shoulder. All of the grief, anger, frustration and pain Jack had held in for so many years suddenly came crashing down on him all at once. Ianto hid his anger towards the Doctor deep down. But Ianto knew that his anger would not help Jack now. Ianto felt Jack tremble as the sobs tore through his body.

"It's okay," he said over and over. "It's not real…It's just a memory."

Ianto looked up helpless at his colleagues as his boss clung to him desperately. Ianto was vaguely distressed and exasperated when terrified and tearful faces met his own. _No hep there, _he thought. Finally he felt Jack settle and the sobs turned into whimpers. Jack rested his head on Ianto's shoulder and closed his eye's tiredly.

"They left me," he said quietly. "Knee deep in Dalek dust and human remains and they just left me. They didn't look back, just carried on with their wonderful lives, saving the world. Whilst I starved to death three times before I managed to rig up a make shift system and contact earth for help. I can tell you it was one hullva shock when I came back to life after starving the first time round. I nearly died again from a heart attack." The team let him talk himself into silence.

Suddenly a loud bang from behind them made each one of them jump. A look of dawning comprehension and horror spread over Jack's features.

"Oh no…" he moaned. "No no no…Move!"

Shaking again, he grabbed Ianto and Gwen's arm and pulled them out of the door way and into the control room. The others followed.

Past Jack bolted to the end of the corridor, his face set in grim determination, firing round after round of bullets. The team watched in horror and dread as the bullets ran out and he pulled another, smaller gun- they recognised as Jacks Webley pistol, also ran out of bullets. This time he only managed a few short rounds. He threw the Webley down on the floor in defeat.

"You will be EXTERMINATED!" came the distorted voice of a Dalek.

Past Jack opened his arms wide in surrender.

"Yeah, I kinda figured that," he said defiantly.

The Dalek shot him, his whole body visible to them like an X-Ray, before the force of the laser blew him into the wall. They all winced as his body crashed into the hard metal wall with sheer force, before he finally came to rest, slumped on the ground.

Toshiko and Gwen were openly crying on each others shoulders, hugging each other for comfort. Owen just sat, starring in shock and disbelief at the alien before him. Ianto was too busy trying to console a hurt and tired Jack to let out his own emotions of anger and grief.

"It…It just killed you?" Gwen whispered, horrified. "Just like that? No Mercy-"

"Mercy!?" Jack yelled.

His voice sounded alien to him, strangled and high pitched.

"C'mon, Gwen! I didn't think you were that Naive! You've seen them!" Jack's breaths were coming in short sharp gasps. He was struggling to keep hold of reality. He clutched the alien device firmly in his hand.

Owen saw the dangers- he was, after all, a trained paramedic. He was instantly at Jack's side.

"Calm down, Jack." His voice was soft and low, soothing. It totally threw Jack. If he'd been thinking clearly he would have wondered why he'd never realised that Owen could be so…well, professional.

Jacks world was starting to fade, the edges turning grey. _No_, he told himself. _I have to know what happened to me, I have to know-_

A loud, grating noise of engines startled them all. They turned round to see the TARDIS materialising behind them. Jack watched through half closed eyes, his breathing still un even.

"Jack, calm down or you'll have a fit," Owens voice souned distant, far away.

Rose burst out of the TARDIS, a golden pool of light billowing all around her. She looked…beautiful. The Doctor also seemed mesmerized.

"I can see the whole of space and time…" Rose's voice echoed ten fold around the room.

"…And everything shall turn to dust,"

All of the Daleks disappeared, leaving behind only a pile of dust to remind them that a life form had once stood there.

The glow continued to spread around the room. The Doctor was trying to reason with Rose.

"Let go of it Rose…Let it go!" They heard him say.

Rose turned to face the team, as if she saw them.

"And I bring life," she finished.

The past Jack lying slumped against the wall glowed. The glow got brighter and brighter.

"I think you need a doctor," he said, and kissed her.

Gwen gasped in awe as the Doctor drew the time vortex back into himself and the TARDIS. Rose fainted and the beautiful golden light was sucked back into the TARDIS, leaving the room pitched in darkness and Dalek dust.


End file.
